The “mule” with golden eggs: Retrieval of unusual foreign body

Abstract

Foreign body ingestions often consist of benign objects that will readily pass through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract without necessitating further intervention. There are various reports in the literature about intentional ingestion of foreign bodies in prisoners and body packers, which required intervention. We present a case of 44-year-old male with a history of intentional ingestion of 30 gold pellets as a carrier from Dubai to India. The pellets were successfully retrieved by upper GI endoscopy after 1-week of observation and unsuccessful attempts of conservative trial. There have been many foreign body extractions but gold retrieval has been a rare case.

Keywords

• dormia basket
• endoscopy
• foreign body
• gold pellets